ATLANTA (AP) — Voters in northwest Georgia will go to the polls to select a successor to U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on March 10.
Gov. Brian Kemp set the election date on Tuesday, a day after Greene resigned from Congress following a tumultuous five years.
The field to succeed Greene in Georgia's 14th Congressional District is already swelling. As many as 19 Republicans have said they will run or are considering it, including state Sen. Colton
Moore of Trenton, District Attorney Clayton Fuller and Paulding County businessman Brian Stover. Reagan Box of Armuchee, who had been running a longshot campaign for the Republican nomination for Senate, switched into the 14th District race in December.
Shawn Harris, the Democratic nominee who lost the race to Greene in 2024, is seeking the seat, as is Democrat Clarence Blalock of Hiram. Also running is independent Rob Ruszkowski of Rising Fawn.
Candidates will run on the same all-party ballot on March 10. If no one wins a majority, the top two finishers will go to a runoff four weeks later on April 7.
The district stretches from Atlanta's northwest suburbs through all or part of 10 counties to the Tennessee state line. It's rated as the most Republican-leaning district in Georgia by the Cook Political Report, and voters there embraced Greene's hard-right campaign in 2020 when she parachuted into the district after starting a campaign in a more closely contested district closer to Atlanta.
Greene left Capitol Hill as one of the most well-known members of Congress. She remained loyal to Donald Trump after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, promoting Trump’s falsehoods about a stolen election. When Trump ran again in 2024, she toured the country with him and spoke at his rallies while wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat.
But Greene began clashing with Trump last year after he and other Republicans pushed back against her running for U.S. Senate or governor. Greene criticized Trump's foreign policy and his reluctance to release documents involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. The president eventually had enough, saying he would support a primary challenge against her. Greene announced a week later that she would resign.
Returning another Republican to Congress would bolster a narrow GOP minority that was further depleted by the death Monday night of Republican Doug LaMalfa, a seven-term U.S. representative from California who suffered a medical emergency. His death and Greene's resignation narrowed the party’s control of the House to 218 seats to Democrats’ 213.
Candidates will qualify for three days next week, but they if they intend to serve out more than the remainder of Greene's term, they will have to qualify again for the general election during March 2 through March 6, in the week before the special election. Voters will return to the polls for party primaries for the November general election on May 19.
